Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari

6 - Inoffensive isekai slop, with some nice pacing and story beats - It has some heart - Not bad, not great. The score of '6' is what I give it relative to other things, my enjoyment of it was a '7' and I never felt like I shouldn't bother with it whenever I saw a new episode pop up.

Story: High school student turned protagonist in a fantasy world to become the 'Ring King' who needs to convince five princesses to give him their paired ring, in order to fulfill the legend and beat the baddie. He's into the main girl, who's into him.
There are ... some nice locations with interesting dilemmas and the circumstances he has to go through, at the end of the day it does feel like an adventure, which is fun.

Ecchi: While this is an ecchi show with partial nudity (breasts), it doesn't do much with it and it actually tones it down quite a lot as the show goes, despite it adding girl after girl.
It is extremely frustrating the MC is either constantly interrupted or wimps out. This is a boy turning into a man who has no social expectations of him since he's not in Japan anymore, but for an entire season he just can't get to grips with how to get with a girl, let alone multiple, because he insists that he's only into the main girl. Whatever happened to having casual fun?
The girls look good but have no appeal.

Isekai: I don't know why it's an isekai.
The story hook of the main character following a childhood friend (girl he likes) through a portal isn't particularly engaging and it adds absolutely nothing to the story since our protagonist doesn't do anything clever with his modern knowledge in a fantasy setting, he's mostly just 'guy who tries hard'.
At one point they return and you'd think there'd be some fun to be had with the fantasy girls with cat ears, horns, elf ears in modern Japan right? Nope.

Ultimately the show takes itself too seriously too often and completely forgets to have fun with things. I recommend it because the story in itself is not bad, there's a really good foundation for something that could've been great.

Tales of Wedding Rings - What a way to force a harem through circumstances.

If you didn't know, mangaka duo Maybe has previous adaptations in the AniManga space: Silver Link's Spring 2012 adaptation of Tasogare Otome × Amnesia a.k.a Dusk Maiden of Amnesia (which is low-key one of my favourite shows of the early 2010s), and MAPPA's Summer 2019 adaptation of Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e a.k.a To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts (which was kinda meh to low-level decent). This season, the duo's entry has extended one more adaptation: Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari a.k.a Tales of Wedding Rings, with its manga ongoing into its 10th year, while ... Kemono-tachi has ended last year. But when it comes to the ultimate comparison of quality and content, Tasogare Otome comes first with a wide gap, while both Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari and Kemono-tachi share the same problems having to be serialized alongside each other and sharing resources to keep its content fresh, which if you've watched MAPPA's anime back in 2019, you would understand why.

But back to Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari. Again, I found the manga to be a plentiful read after watching Kemono-tachi which was frankly a mess back in the day, and then again, it's not exactly like a mind-blowing mind-over-matter kind of story, given its romantic fantasy context. And before you mention it further, nope, it's NOT an Isekai (though technically it has elements of it).

The story of a boy being introduced to a girl whom he was supposed to take care of while escaping from the perils of another world, this is the life of Haruto Satou, who took care of Hime for 10 years until she is called back home to her original world. Seeing that he has regarded her as his childhood friend (and literally one who cannot stop simping for her), he can't let her go that simply, and decided to follow her and her grandfather presumptiously back to her world, which he learns that Hime is not just a typical girl, but the princess of her own land: Krystal Novaty Nokanatika, along with her grandfather, who is the Great Mage of her land, Alabaster. Her being wed to a prince is customary, but something which Satou doesn't quite understand, and is forced to act when demons attack their land in the way of Hime suddenly kissing him and granting him the powers of her ring to defeat said demons. He then learns that Hime's ring is only but one of a set of 5 rings which represent the Earth's elements, hers being of the light, and he needs to acquire all 5 rings to be able to defeat said enemy of the Abyss King as the legend's Ring King. And despite said prince being not too all happy about it, he obliges to help Satou, Hime and Alabaster go around their world to find the Ring Princesses which safeguard the rings, which also grant him powers, and ultimately adopt them into the harem as his potential wives, to put their mind and strength together to take down the Abyss King and save their land.

Let me make this clear: Haruto Satou is no gigachad 100 Girlfriends's Rentaro, that is for sure. Despite him having the looks of an average guy who is not cut out for anything, he's still has to ultimately accept that he is assigned a hero role and has to wed the girls of various looks and sizes, no matter the context of their origins. The TL;DR about Satou is that he's very wishy-washy, often one who can't make rational decisions until he's being told to man up and take charge of the impending situations, unlike Marmarugias "Marse" Gisaras, the prince who was supposed to be wed to Hime, who'd rather support him in being the Ring King. The girls fare no better, as they're in every sense of the word: plot devices to forward Satou's role as the Ring King. So as long as they're "conquered", the plot-girl moves on and becomes a background harem character. The only good thing about it is that despite having a harem, Satou literally pines for Hime and her alone as his destined wife, always wanting to have sex with her, but gets cockblocked each and every time new troubles come along. Also, Hime is naturally jealous that Satou's other 4 potential wives: Earth Ring Princess of elf Nefritis Romca, Fire Ring Princess of catgirl Granart Needakitta, Air Ring Princess of Saphir Maasa and Earth Ring Princess of Amber Idanokan, their personalities (to each their own) are interesting, though as mentioned, they're plot-devices who lie on the sidelines, always wanting to juice up Satou when he feels down, or his commitment to Hime hits constant lows. Nevertheless, the girls are a fun bunch when they're allowed to go loose, and that's about the best thing I can say about the main character cast.

The production is just about as decent as studio Staple Entertainment's last offering of a similar kind: Summer 2022's Kinsou no Vermeil a.k.a Vermeil in Gold. It's not bad, but nothing great either, with rather dark undertones for a fantasy show, despite it being uncensored for the eyes of culture. Likewise, the music is just so-so, it just exists and is rather unnoticeable. The show's theme songs on the other hand, it's all hands on deck for the musical project Sizuk, with the OP "Lover's Eye" feat. AYAME (from AliA), which is a rather musically tonal song fit for the series in a good way, and the ED "Kokoro no Naka" feat. AliA being a rather low-ball effort being just a presentation for the 5 central girls in pure ecchi taste.

Look, I can also appreciate a romantic fantasy Ecchi series if it's done right, but as much as I put Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari's manga to decency levels, while the anime is not a bad adaptation per se, the story elements definitely suffered as the Elephant in the room, and the production isn't as good as the manga's art, the Ecchi segments included (which is one of the highlights of the original source material).

Fool me once, shame on me (because Tasogare Otome is THAT fantastic). Fool me once, shame on you (Kemono-tachi is nothing memorable). The 3rd time's the charm, and this falls close to Kemono-tachi levels but better by a tad bit, however, is an untouchable when compared to Tasogare Otome. If you're interested, the ongoing manga still has lots of material content left for what happens thereafter, and that is left for you to judge the series in totality after watching the anime.

Now then, if you excuse me, I'm going to read more 100 Girlfriends in preparation for Season 2 than peril through this close-to-pornographic Lord of the Rings parody.

Oh, what can the world do without an ecchi like Tale of Wedding Rings these days? I probably had to check several times on various sources when this got announced for an anime adpatation. Why? That's because it felt like we already got the announcement years ago. Yet here we are with a 12-episode adaptation announced just last year and making its debut on the TV screen. And unfortunately, it should've probably remained better off of it.

Now here's a head up. Tales of Wedding Rings is exactly what it looks like from its premise, promos, character designs, and even genre tags. It's not trying to ... hide what it sells and from the first episode, you're going to get thrown with fan service to the face along with the most one dimensional character roster this year so far in 2024. If you just want a guilty pleasure show with minimial creativity and storytelling, then read on further.

When you have a beautiful girl giving you a ring, this signifies the start of a romance. Tales of Wedding Rings essentially begins with Hime giving her childhood friend Satou a ring. However, that ring isn't a symbol of love but instead a weapon used to defeat demons. It takes less than two episodes to show that Hime has feelings towards Satou but it doesn't end there. For you see, there are other rings in the show, and Satou seems destined to obtain them like a hero. Thus, we have a tale of wedding rings because Satou has to marry the princesses who carries those rings.

Tale of Wedding Rings doesn't carry a feeling of mystery unlike his other previous adapted work, Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. Hardly in fact. This is treated as a rom-com fantasy with harem themes just the tags indicates. It desires to be a romantic fantasy but the execution is poorly done. The main reason revolves around the dull protagonist Satou who seems to just go along with being a hero. It's like he's acting on a script of a play and building off of what he's told. Outside of Hime, he manages to attract the attention of other princesses including Granart, Nefritis, Saphir, and Amber. All of them has a ring of different element and comes from different lands. Being a 12-episode series, you can guess that the characterization and development is minimal. They seem to just fall into Satou's lap after meeting him for a single episode or two. There really is no impactful relationship as all these girls are drawn to him like a typical harem protagonist.

Hime is the most prominent among the harem as she is not only the first girl introduced but also the childhood friend. Naturally, she has an "advantage". There's an unwriten role in harem anime like this where these advantages allows her to get to the main protagonist first. There's even segments where the two are about to 'do it' only to be interrupted by some aisine reason. But alas, this is show was never made with a commitment to relationships. It just wants our protagonist to gather rings like pieces to a puzzle and unlock his true role as a ring hero. Sadly, even that isn't accomplished because this is and I say this with confidence: a very incomplete adaptation.

By adaptation standards, you get alluring fan service with the princesses being decorated with attractive figures. Satou gets himself caught into compromising positions and I assure you, this anime is 100% aware of what it's doing. Fan service is filled with boobs, ass, and questionable positions. There are dialogues spoken throughout the show that suggests intercourse but because this isn't a hentai, those can't be aired on TV.

Don't blame the idea on this series but do blame how the plot and character cast. To be honest, the premise doesn't sound so half baked if it's executed with some care. Sadly, this anime is the result of a rushed adaptation that puts shame on the fantasy genre this season.